To use the plugin, enter the text you wish to format into the text box. You can then highlight the text you wish to format and select a replacement color. Select the output channel from the menu and send.
(Note: If you make changes to the text after you've made colour changes e.g. added a new word - the text will automatically de-format and you will have to select the colours again).

You can compile a selection of favorite colors for future use, to do this, right-click on one of the boxes and select 'Replace' from the menu that pops up. You can then pick a color either from the picker, by entering a hex color value into the label at the top, or by clicking the color preview box. These favorites will save when you unload the plugin so you can use them again and again.

You may also wish to send messages using a gradient of colors. To do this hit the 'Gradient' button at the top, this will bring up a new window. A minimum of two colors is needed, to replace these colors right-click on one and select 'Replace' (note, you can replace multiple colors at the same time). You can then click on one of your favorite colors, the picker, or even another gradient color to select.

To add a new color, right click on the window above the bar. This will place a new color there for you. Left-click and drag the new color to position it where you would like. You can then right-click it to replace the color or remove it.

'Generate' will show you a preview of the color gradients. Feel free to slide the colors, replace them, and add new ones to create interesting results.

When you're happy with your generated gradient, hit the send button in the main window to send it to your chat channel.

You can also send /tells using this plugin, to do this select /tell from the channel drop-down. You can then enter the player name in the new text box. If you're sending a gradient, you will need to re-generate after entering the name.

Aliases can be saved for future use. Do to this hit save when you're happy with the output. Aliases can be accessed and deleted by hovering your mouse over the 'speech' icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

Warning. This plugin is meant to be for fun, however using it too consistently may irritate other players who've set their own color themes for each chat channel. Please take that into consideration when sending messages publicly.

If you enjoy this plugin, please help support its development by making a donation

Update v1.4.1:
- Added 'World' channel support

Update v1.4.0:
- Changed the color picker class to be more effective.
- Implemented the new :SetMarkupEnabled() feature to the output text. With this the plugin is no longer restricted to 'block' colors. Instead it now functions like a standard text editor - you will need to highlight the text you wish to color format.
- Changed the output text window background to be semi-transparent so the preview is more realistic to how you will see it in the chat window.

Update v1.3:
- You can now use a minimized version of the window, this way it is more accessible during gameplay as it takes up far less space.
- Added a ;target button - targeting can not be used with gradients at this time and will be filtered out - Thanks Eldarian for the suggestion
- Changed the ColorPicker class to the modified version by Garan, the plugin now loads almost instantly Thanks Garan.

Update v1.2:
- You can now send /tells to other players.
- You can now save aliases for future use.

Update v1.1:
- Fixed a bug where if you tried to create a gradient with more than 100 characters you'd get an error when generating.

Known Issues:
- If you try using a gradient to customise an AFK message, chances are you'll get a load of gibberish. The AFK message doesn't allow for too many colors, so it's best to use one solid color instead.

Future Plans:
- I am also exploring ways to be able to color format a selected piece of text from your input.

About the color picker:
For any developers who may want to use it, I created the color picker as a class in it's own .lua file. Feel free to use it if you wish.

A couple of posts about icon locking were all I could find to answer my own problem with this.

Checking the settings file, the location of the icon and window are saved so it should be what you call "locked" in position.

However, the settings file isn't updating for any of my characters on any account on any server. I've checked the code and there is are functions to save and load the settings, but apparently they aren't working.

As for hiding it with F12, I'm sure it is an easy change in the plug-in - sorry I don't know enough to do that.

Shame as the plug-in works well otherwise. I wonder if Galuhad isn't returning if some other plug-in author could take a look at these two, tiny problems which I'm sure are easily fixed!

I have not found a plugin that does what I'm looking for. It looks like this one includes the approximate functionality I desire, but takes up too much space on the screen for me. (I realise that the purpose of this plugin is for adding colour, but I have little desire for colour myself.)

Pretty much every time I play, I find myself in the situation where I'm in the middle of typing out a very long /say or /tell, when I suddenly need to use the command line to send something else (such as quickly responding to a Trade offer that just showed up, issuing a /clap for a musician whose song ended while I'm typing, returning a /wave to a friend who just walked in, etc.).

My current method of dealing with that is pretty tedious: shift-left arrow across what I have already typed, copy/cut, send the new command, then paste my message back in so I can finish typing. Further frustration arises from the command line being only one line, so I cannot see my whole message to proofread it easily before sending. (Sometimes I even end up creating my messages in Lyrical, but that's a pain.)

What I want is a plugin that gives me a text entry box where I can take my time to compose a long message without tying up my command line.

It looks like ChatEdit can do that, however, I rarely, if ever, send coloured text. (Although I might once in awhile if I had a handy tool like that to facilitate it.)

What I would like to see is a way to turn off all the colour features, so that it has only the chat box, output channel selection and target/save/send buttons, and, thus, does not block so much of the screen. The minimized mode of ChatEdit does not provide quite what I'm looking for because I want a text box, rather than just a line, so I can easily edit the whole message without switching to the maximized mode or moving the cursor to pan back and forth.

Failing that, I would welcome any suggestions where else I might look to find a plugin to give ma a text-entry (and sending) box (or boxes -- often I'm in several conversations at once) that is in addition to the command line.

Hi,
Again, nice plugin indeed.
Since I am french, I do apreciatiate the plugin to be able to deal with french (or other languages). Is it plan to make it some way more adaptable.

I would be able to translate but the code is not appropriate. Would it be possible to have a parameter lua file to load internationalization ?
Something like (for FR):
Say = Parler
Tell = Dire
Kinship = Confrerie
etc.

I can help for translation if needed.

Many thanks again,
Winwin

Hi,

I apologise for this. When I first wrote the plugin I was still very noobish and didn't really understand much of what I was doing. Hence why it doesn't have a strings file.

At the moment I am knee-deep re-writing another plugin of mine, but of course I will keep this in mind for the future if there is interest for it and tackle it as soon as I can

Hi,
Again, nice plugin indeed.
Since I am french, I do apreciatiate the plugin to be able to deal with french (or other languages). Is it plan to make it some way more adaptable.

I would be able to translate but the code is not appropriate. Would it be possible to have a parameter lua file to load internationalization ?
Something like (for FR):
Say = Parler
Tell = Dire
Kinship = Confrerie
etc.

Please update this with a way to lock the button in place. At the moment, it is just dragged but there is no way to lock it. Buttons from other plugins either require you to use the traditional CNTRL+\ to unlock the UI and move the button or require you to hold down a specific key while moving the button.

I prefer to lock all buttons in place to avoid accidentally moving them. Thanks!

Have updated the plugin, there's a new minimized window you can use instead of the main window, this can be repositioned and the width can be resized. Hopefully this will make using the plugin more viable in gameplay as it will take up far less space and can sit out of the way.

I have also added a ;target button that will insert the ;target command into your text at the cursors current position, this way you can use and save target aliases for use in raids etc.

I don't want to go down the road of having individual word boxes that you add each time you want a different color, I'm trying to work on a way of being able to edit the color of a highlighted piece of text instead, but the API doesn't seem to be functioning correctly at present.

With the next update I'll try and include some sort of a help file.

The saved aliases is small because I assumed people wouldn't want it to clutter up their UI, however, I can certainly recode it so it can be resized in a future update.

The shortcuts don't work if you drag them to your other quickslots because of the way the game processes them - for some reason quickslots created with the API aren't read into the game in exactly the same way. If you try dragging the shortcut somewhere else and click it, you'll get the text with all the <rgb> tags. This is something I unfortunately have no control over.

Took me 30 min to figure it out, its not exactly intuitive. BUT, I managed. I tried to drag and drop color boxes hehe, and I tried to left click a color box to select it and right clicking the color picker to fill it with color.

Anyhow I find it useful and I ended up changing the shortcuts file to include ;target function as it is really handy in the ettens (Kill --> ;target), heh.

Hope you implement these advanced chat functions so it is even more usable.

Right now you have 2 options for colors. Standard, color all text and gradient/rainbow.

I would like you to implement a function where we choose color for each word separately.

Create color box 1 = word 1, create color box 2 = word 2.

So I create: "GS HM" both yellow 2/6 red or whatever, then "looking for tank, healer..." a third color.

I can achieve similar effect by correctly placing the boxes but there is still too much of rainbow effect and people hate it in general.

Also the "Saved Aliases" bar is reallllly small.
Can you make it resizeable or atleast 2x bigger?
And you cant drag made shortcuts/aliases to your normal lotro toolbar. How come?

All in all a great plugin and I am looking forward to see it developing further.